


Hero

by ununquadius



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Good Draco Malfoy, Malfoy Manor, Mentions of Blood, POV Draco Malfoy, Summer before 7th year, mentions of torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-11
Updated: 2019-08-11
Packaged: 2020-08-14 17:15:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20195833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ununquadius/pseuds/ununquadius
Summary: Draco remembers what happened at the Manor in the summer before his 7th year and how, for once, he was the hero and not the villain.





	Hero

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [When Did You Last Let Your Heart Decide?](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19296013) by [hephaestiions](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hephaestiions/pseuds/hephaestiions). 

> This fic is inspired by something mentioned in the first chapter of "When Did You Last Let Your Heart Decide?" (read the fic!). It was so heartbreaking that I couldn't think of anything else for days after reading it!
> 
> A big thank you to Chris for the beta ❤️
> 
> And a big thank you to sam7sparks7, who helped me with the title 💜
> 
> Hope you like it!

"What do you think of this doll for Teddy?" Harry's voice reaches him from a long distance, although he is just next to him. "Draco? Are you listening to me?" 

Draco shakes his head. His eyes don't leave the little girl that hugs a dragon plushie just at the end of the corridor. The girl isn't listening to her companion either, a tall woman, _her aunt _, Draco remembers. The girl looks at the shelves but with an empty expression, as if all the toys that surround her -a paradise to any other child- mean nothing to her. And Draco understands why. Any other child hasn't suffered what this one has.

* * *

It was the summer before his seventh year. The fear he felt those days was so thick it made him nauseated sometimes. The Death Eaters brought a family to the Manor. Bellatrix started it. The mother was tortured mercilessly while the dad and the little girl were forced to watch. Draco prayed someone would stop it. Anyone. But all of them looked too, some laughed, some tried to look amused by it. 

The little girl was the only one who shouted at Bellatrix to stop. She was braver than any of the adults in the room. However, nobody listened to her, but told her she was the entertainment for the next night. 

That night, Draco went to the dungeons, a blanket twisted in his hands. He approached the cell, and listened how the man told a fairytail to his daughter. When the man fell silent, he threw the blanket in the cell and ran upstairs. 

The next day, the Death Eaters tortured the man. When they finished, the carpet of the main living room was covered in blood, and while he puked with his head buried in the toilet, Draco thought that they had been merciful at leaving the little girl in the dungeons. 

He went there again. This time, he carried his old dragon plushie and a jar with biscuits. The girl was curled in the blanket, singing softly to herself. 

"Hey," Draco whispered. The girl stopped and looked at her with wide eyes. "I brought you a plushie, do you want it?" He pushed the toy between the bars and watched how it landed on the other side. The girl didn't move. "His name is Green, because, well, he's green and I didn't have too much imagination as a child. It's yours now. I don't think he minds if you change his name. And I brought you biscuits. I can't pass the jar between the bars, so I'll leave them on the dragon, okay?" He did as he said, while the child looked silently at him. Then he left. 

Two nights later, the girl was still in the dungeons, forgotten due to more important victims of the war. That night, all the Death Eaters were leaving, trying to kill Potter. That left the manor for just Draco and his parents, which gave him the idea and the strength that for once in his life he could be the hero. 

He went to the dungeons once again. In her cell, the girl was hugging the dragon and biting a biscuit. 

"Hey." The girl, as had happened two nights before, looked at him in fear but said nothing. "I'm going to get you out of here, okay? But we need to be fast and silent. Do you have any family apart from your parents?" 

The girl nodded and whispered something he couldn't hear. Well, she could tell him again later. He opened the cell with a nonverbal Alohomora and waited for the child to move. But she stayed sat in her corner. 

Draco cursed under his breath and approached her.

"I'm going to pick you up, okay?" The girl nodded again, and without wasting more time, he picked her up and ran upstairs and to the gardens. 

The girl was thin and he could feel her bones through her thin clothes and the blanket. She shook a little, as if she was going to cry, so Draco whispered all the calming nonsense he could think of. Finally, they reached the heavy iron gate and left the Manor. 

"I need you to tell me where your relatives live. Can you do that? Please?" 

"My aunt lives in Dover," she whispered. 

They Apparated away, and then again to the street the girl told him. 

"Tell your aunt to go out of the country. This is dangerous. Will you do that?" The girl nodded. "Which house it is?" 

The girl pointed to a small brick house. The lights of the first floor were on, and their yellow light seemed welcoming and calming. Draco waited in the shadows for the girl to ring the bell, and watched how a tall woman opened the door, let out a scream of joy and surprise and hugged the girl tightly. He smiled in relief and Appeared to the manor again. To the fear and hopelessness.

* * *

"Draco?" 

Harry's voice brings him back to the present. He shakes his head and stops looking at the girl. 

"Yes, that's good for Teddy."

He ignores Harry's worried glances to focus on the relief he is feeling. Teddy and the girl don't have their parents with them anymore due to the war, but now, just two years later, there's no more deaths, no more tortures, no more fear. Now all is well.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!❤️


End file.
